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The police chief’s video blast to officers whose behaviour shames the Toronto force will be followed up with action, a source says.

Police Chief Bill Blair's crackdown on a culture of "arrogance and entitlement" in his officers will need to be followed by sanctions against misbehaviour, say critics who spoke positively of the chief's video Tuesday. (STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

“I haven’t heard Blair talk like that before, being so openly critical,” said former mayor John Sewell of the chief’s remarks, delivered Monday night to some 8,000 members via the organization’s intranet and shown to the Star by a police source.

Sewell, a staunch police critic, added, however, that Blair’s words are futile without action to back them up. “To me the issue is, so what’s going to happen in terms of discipline?”

A police source told the Star on Monday that action will follow Blair’s message in the coming weeks but wouldn’t elaborate.

Dr. Alok Mukherjee, head of the Toronto police civilian oversight board, said Tuesday he was aware the chief was going to do some “plain speaking.”

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Mukherjee noted his ongoing disapproval with officers who abuse their authority and added he expects they will be “held to strict account.”

“My concern is that, first, these few people bring disrepute on the vast majority of our members who are decent, honest and committed people dedicated to public service; second, by their actions they jeopardize the prosecution of those who threaten public safety; and, third, they undermine public trust and confidence.

In this context, Chief Blair’s action is much needed and appropriate.” he said.

Blair’s decision to make the video, which police said Tuesday wouldn’t be publicly released at this time, was probably the result of a confluence of factors.

A Star investigation last year revealed more than 100 cases of police deception in courts in Ontario and across the country. (At a police services board meeting Wednesday, Blair is expected to address a plan to deal with officers in cases where a judge has accused them of being dishonest under oath.).

Earlier this month, a judge stayed impaired driving charges against Toronto cook Raymond Costain, finding that police who arrested him used excessive force and seemed “indifferent to the truth” while testifying.

A video clip, captured on a police dashboard camera three years ago, shows Const. Christian Dobbs repeatedly striking Costain, who is face down and hidden from view, in front of the King Edward Hotel. Provincial court Justice Ford Clements also found that two officers, in an attempted coverup, turned off their cruiser cameras. Blair and the province’s police watchdog, the SIU, have both launched investigations.

The case was one of two clips edited into Blair’s videotaped remarks.

The second clip reportedly shows a group of officers using “sexist, racist and profane language,” according to a source. (A reporter wasn’t shown the video because the matter is “in the courts.”)

“The problem with these video clips is not that they were captured on video,” Blair says. “The problem lies in the behaviour.”

Police association head Mike McCormack said Tuesday he had no issue with the chief’s message, but objected to the use of clips from ongoing cases that didn’t offer another side to the story.

At one point during the five-minute video, depicting an angry Blair speaking directly to the camera, the chief tells his members bluntly: “If you want to be an idiot, you don’t get to be an idiot in our uniform. You don’t get to be an idiot diminishing our organization and you cannot hide behind the badge to abuse the authority so carefully earned and so carefully used by all of us.”

Reacting to the chief’s remarks, Howard Morton, a member of the Law Union of Ontario who’s been critical of police in the past, said that while Blair falls short at times, “I think he really cares about the quality of policing and the morality of policing in this city.”

When asked if police services need to hear more tough talk from chiefs, Ontario Provincial Police commissioner Chris Lewis said he thinks there’s a time and place for it.

“I haven’t reached that point myself, but if faced with the circumstances, particularly the media reporting that Bill’s been faced with, I can see why he would be frustrated. He’s been in that organization for 36 years. His father was a member of the organization, he believes in the Toronto Police Service, and he obviously feels let down and concerned about what this has done to the public trust.”

“I don’t think this chief can say these things any more without sounding hypocritical,” Rusonik said in an email. “He’s way too late responding to these problems, and his own behaviour has contributed to them ... This statement should have been made by a civilian overseer with the power to rectify what’s wrong, not merely shake a finger at them.”

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